Monaco looking to keep pace with PSG against Lille

Monaco’s first home fixture of the new Ligue 1 season sees them host Lille, who will be hoping to improve on last year’s poor league showing.

Stade Louis II will play host to Monaco and Lille on Monday night at 8pm local time, with both sides coming into the game having won their opening day fixtures.

Lille beat Rennes 3-1 at home last weekend while Monaco won by the same scoreline at Nantes.

Monaco finished last season in second position, 13 points behind champions PSG and two points clear of Lyon in third place, while Lille narrowly avoided relegation in 17th. Monaco are, therefore, heavy favorites to begin the new season with a second successive win.

They will need as many points as they can muster if they are to get closer to challenging PSG at the top of the table, who will be big title favorites with Neymar and Kylian Mbappe among their ranks once more.

For Lille, the target is to avoid the drop again, but do so in a more comfortable manner this time around.

Key battles

Former Lille loanee, Rony Lopes, the Portuguese attacking midfielder, will be crucial for Monaco this season in the absence of the departed Thomas Lemar, who joined Atletico Madrid, and will need to be shackled well by the Lille defense if they are to avoid suffering at the playmaker’s hands.

Lopes got 12 goals over two loan spells at Lille and scored 17 for Monaco last season alone.

New Lille man Jose Fonte, the former Southampton central defender, will need to be on top form to keep Lopes at bay, with Stevan Jovetic and Pietro Pellegri also in the mix. Monaco’s summer signing Alexandr Golovin is out injured.

In midfield, talented young Belgian Youri Tielemans will pit himself against Xeka and Jonathan Bamba, with Thiago Mendes probably playing slightly more advanced.

Lille will rely on Nicolas Pepe, Lebo Mothiba and Yassine Benzia for goals, while Jonathan Ikone could come off the bench. Monaco defenders Kamil Glik and Jemerson will be tasked with keeping tabs on those Lille attackers.

Previous meetings

Lille have not won this fixture since April 2016 when they won 4-1 at home. Since then, Monaco have won five consecutive matches between the pair by a combined score of 16 goals to three.

Last season, Monaco won 4-0 at Lille, with Jovetic and Rachid Ghezzal both scoring before a Radamel Falcao brace made it a rout.

In the reverse fixture, Lille kept it much tighter, but were beaten 2-1 at the Stade Louis II, with Jovetic scoring the winner after Leba Mothiba had given Lille the lead, and Lopes had equalized.

Lille will be hoping to take some points off Monaco for the first time in three seasons.